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The Wettening
Plot Summary One day at Skool it begins to rain, and Zim grows curious; as it never rains on his homeworld, he has never experienced it before. Dib takes notice Zim's caution towards the wet stuff, and coaxes Zim into stepping out into the rain, only to discover that the Irken race has an innate weakness to the highly polluted downpour, which causes a burning sensation, like acid upon impact. Dib decides to exploit this newfound weakness, thus by using water as a weapon to stop Zim once and for all. But, Zim himself finds a way to protect himself from this new threat. After testing some paste collected from Skool, Zim discovers that if he bathes himself in it, water no longer affects him. Over the weekend, Dib and Zim prepare themselves for an epic showdown on Monday. Dib shows up with a water balloon launcher, and Zim shows up with nothing, instead stands there, cowering on the spot, apparently too afraid to move or speak. However, when Dib fires his first water balloon, it flies straight through Zim, revealing him to be a hologram. The real Zim is actually in orbit of the planet, aboard a giant space station. Zim then proceeds to drain all the water from the city, and uses it to fill a giant water balloon. He targets Dib, and releases it, flooding the entire city and destroying Zim's House. Facts of Doom Cultural References *The very concept of an invading alien race being vulnerable to water is a major motif of the science-fiction story "The War of the Worlds." *Dib's final quote in the episode "The wettening! The wettening!" is likely a reference to Kurtz's infamous last words in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, "The horror! The horror!" Trivia of Doom *This episode is the first since The Nightmare Begins that the official Invader ZIM font has been used again. *This episode was nearly scrapped because the staff had trouble making it long enough. *This episode is one with one of the DVD easter eggs. *This episode is very similar to the pilot episode in that Dib attempts to use one of Zim's weaknesses to expose him, and a battle starts. *This episode caused much confusion about Zim's weakness to water, due to the fact that in episodes before and after, he gets wet and doesn't feel any pain. In Parent Teacher Night, he gets splashed with punch. In Attack of the Saucer Morons, while Zim is riding the pig ship, it does a barrel roll through water. In both Door to Door and The Frycook What Came from All that Space, he is sprayed by a hose. Also, in The Frycook What Came From All That Space, he is splashed with punch and gets in white-hot grease. (But this could be an alien liquid) However, in A Room with a Moose and Tak: The Hideous New Girl, he still seems to have a weakness to it. *In the DVD commentary to later episodes, this is occasionally passed off with things like, "He's covered completely in paste all the time." *Jhonen Vasquez has suggested that Irkens are allergic to the pollution in the water, rather than water itself. Things You Might Have Missed *After the kids sing The Rain Song, Zootch pops up and pretends to spin records like a DJ. *Keef appears several times throughout the episode, once stuck to the ceiling, and several times throughout the Rain Song. *Jhonen Vasquez makes a cameo in this episode. Swallowing his piranha when the fish tank had been drained, causing it to fall into the glass he had sitting nearby. Then, he drinks the water with the piranha in it and chokes on it. He also is seen reading his childhood character comic character Happy Noodle Boy. *Steve Ressel made a cameo in this episode, he can be seen eating a hot dog right before the city floods from Zim's giant balloon. *In the part of the episode when Zim is at the computer to see what the paste on his hand is made out of, there is a computer screens that shows; Asteroid, Rat hair, cupcake, earwax, big door, H2O, wale yellow, dirty dirt, and paste. *Zim would have had a paste bath off-screen, but due to his head being stuck, Zim's off-screen bath never happened. Inconsistencies and Animation Errors *In the beginning of the episode, the calendar said Wednesday 7, though it says Friday 9 when the children return to class in a later scene. Ms. Bitters mentioned ‘yesterday’s paste incident’ despite the fact that it would have happened two days ago, not the day before. *When Zim sucked up all the water the water balloon looked different than when he made a model of it. *When Dib and Gaz are walking home, there's a scene where Dib's legs aren't animated. *In the scene where Zim is being tortured by Dib at the sight of a faucet dripping, watch carefully. When the camera shows the faucet in front of Zim, and him getting closer, or so it seems, he has no PAK. *When Dib has the water tank strapped to his back and yells at "Zim". Watch carefully, Zim's hologram's was facing the street when it shows in the first scene, but when the camera looks at it again, the hologram's face turns to the screen. *In the same scenes, every time the camera looks between "Zim" and Dib, the hologram's face was turning back and forth. When Dib is about to throw the water balloon at "Zim", the hologram's face turns away to what's in front of it until the balloon goes through it and it disappears. *As Gaz wakes up Dib, his scythe-lock seems to have gone limp overnight. In other episodes, however, this never happens. *After Zim gets hit by Dib's water balloon when he examines the paste on his hand, he appears to have four fingers, even though Irkens have only three fingers. Music Main Article: The Kevin Manthei Invader Zim-phony Special *Wet Stares *Building Montage *Holo-Zim *Water Park Quotes Dib: Score one for the human race, score nothing for the... Zim... thingy.. race. Dib: What’s the matter, Zim? Don’t they have rain on your planet? Zim: Of course! We, oh such rain we had! Eh... it was delicious! Zim: On Monday, we settle this like children. Zim: So this rain... is it poisonous? Dib: The wettening... the wettening... Gaz: If you want to keep all your limbs, Zim, you will put me down, and you will put me down now! (rain stops and Zim puts Gaz down) See also *The Wettening (Transcript) *The Wettening Screenshots Category:Season 1 Category:Dib Filmography Category:Gaz Filmography Category:Zim Filmography Category:GIR Filmography Category:Ms. Bitters Filmography Category:Episodes Category:Keef Filmography Category:Altered Episodes